Through the Past Darkly: Reflections on UFC on FOX 6

I know, I know. We just had a UFC flyweight title fight on network TV, and on a card where contenders were established and legends were ushered out to pasture. I’ll get to all that, I promise. But first, I’d like you to think back to the moment in the Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson fight where Dodson, with his hand clearly on the mat, took an illegal knee to the face. You remember that part right? If not, consult your DVR, then join me in the next paragraph.

Two things about that moment: 1) Having one hand (or, in many cases, three fingers of one hand) on the mat should not make you a grounded opponent. A fighter who doesn’t want to get kneed in the head should be forced to concede the position by actually putting one knee down. By allowing him to simply put his hand down (and again, in many cases, pick it up and put it back down again), we’re begging for confusion. That said, 2) we all know the rules, and Johnson broke them. He broke them clearly and indisputably, and he broke them in a way that, while it may not have cost Dodson the fight, certainly did him no favors.

What’s more, Johnson also broke the rules in a way that could not have been truly accidental – not like when you try to kick an opponent on the inside of his thigh and accidentally catch him in the groin. Johnson aimed that knee at Dodson’s head, which is exactly where it landed. Did he realize Dodson’s hand was down? Unclear. Does it matter? I don’t think so. If he didn’t know, he should have. That’s his responsibility. He failed at it, and the result was a clear foul for which he was not punished at all.

This is not uncommon in MMA. This kind of thing happens all the time. Fighters poke each other in the eye, knee each other illegally, grab the fence to avoid takedowns, punch each other in the back of the head – in other words, they break the rules clearly and flagrantly – and most of the time nothing happens. Maybe they get a stern talking to from the ref. Very rarely do they lose a point. More often than not, there are no real consequences to breaking the rules, even when there is no doubt that a rule has been obviously broken.

Does that seem totally insane to anyone else?

We treat MMA fighters as if they just heard the rules for the first time ten minutes ago. “Hey Demetrious, not sure if you know this, but that was illegal. Please don’t do it again.” What other sport does this? When’s the last time you saw a basketball ref warn a player for traveling? It was slightly more understandable back when there were multiple MMA organizations with varying rules. Then at least a fighter could argue that he had a brief mental lapse and thought he was back in Japan for a second. But now? The unified rules have been in place long enough that any UFC fighter should be expected to know and abide by them. If they don’t, there should be a penalty. That’s how rules work.

I’m not trying to single Johnson (or referee John McCarthy) out here. This stuff happens all the time, with every ref, in prelims and main events both. My point is, it has to stop. We can’t go on treating the rules as a vague guideline. Not if we actually expect them to mean anything.

With promise of a title shot, it’s deja vu all over again for Anthony Pettis

There are victories, and then there are annihilations. What Pettis did to Donald Cerrone was definitely the latter. The last reigning WEC lightweight champ straight-up assaulted “Cowboy,” and he made it look easy. Naturally, the performance impressed UFC President Dana White so much he promised Pettis the next 155-pound title shot. Or, you know, the next one right after this next one.

I guess it’s better than nothing, but if I were Pettis I wouldn’t believe it until the cage door closes on fight night and the UFC champ – whoever he is by then – is standing across from me. He’s already been promised a crack at UFC gold once, and we know how kooky the matchmaking situation can get at any moment. That’s not to say he will get jilted again, but I think we all know it’s possible. Fortunately, Pettis has already learned that lesson once. The win over Cerrone proved that he deserves the shot. Now he just has to wait and see if he’ll actually get it.

Demetrious Johnson starting to look like a real champion

Illegal knees and lax interpretations of the rules aside, we have to give “Mighty Mouse” credit for his ability to recover from early difficulties and find a way to wear John Dodson down. It takes a special kind of fighter to make the necessary adjustments on the fly after getting dropped like that. Lots of guys are physically gifted. It’s the champions who know when to abandon something that isn’t working in favor of something else that will.

That made for an exciting title fight, which the flyweights needed, but it also helped to solidify Johnson as the real 125-pound champ, rather than just a guy who won one close fight in a brand-new division. It’s not going to happen overnight, but with these kinds of fights I think fans will warm to what the flyweights are and stop dwelling on what they’re not.

Are we getting ahead of ourselves with the Glover Teixeira love?

The Brazilian light heavyweight looked great against a rapidly fading Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, but am I the only one who thinks it’s too early to start talking about him as a title contender? Teixeira has won all three of his fights in the UFC, but he’s yet to beat an opponent who’s coming off a win in the octagon. Jackson is by far the biggest name he’s beaten, and that wasn’t exactly the toughest “Rampage” we’ve ever seen. That’s not to say Teixeira won’t become an elite light heavyweight, but does anybody really think he’ll be able to snatch single-legs that easily against a Jon Jones or even a Phil Davis? Let’s see him beat someone on the way up before we declare him the next great contender at 205 pounds.

A brutal, bloody welcome for FOX viewers

Assuming the glitches at the opening of the broadcast didn’t scare away network TV viewers right off the top, they soon had the fortitude of their stomachs tested thanks to Ricardo Lamas’ bash-tastic win over Erik Koch. I know White says he’s not worried that FOX will get turned off by too much blood and gore, since, after all, they knew what they were getting into with MMA, but … wow. Seeing Lamas open Koch’s face up with one brutal elbow after another – and all just after 8 p.m. ET – might have been a bit of a shock for some uninitiated viewers. Welcome to the hurt business, people. It ain’t “The Big Bang Theory.”